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<title>The Rockettes: 10-Gram Microrovers for Mars</title>
<center><h1>The Rockettes</h1>
<!WA0><a href="http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/mars-rovers/rockettes-on-mars.jpg"><!WA1><IMG SRC="http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/mars-rovers/rockettes-on-mars-med.jpg"></a>
<h2>10-Gram Microrovers for Mars</h2>
</center><hr>
No, no, they're not golf balls!  They are an artist's conception of what a Mars landing made by a community of microrovers would look like.  The idea is that a whole bunch of very small rovers could spread out and collect data collectively. If each robot had a few sensors and were programmed to disperse around the landing area, it might be possible to gather more data than their size would suggest.<P>
Having more than rover also allows for greater mission flexibility and reliability.  If there are two very interesting rocks in different directions from each other, a single rover would have a difficult time getting to both of them at the same time.  Also, if a few of the microrovers malfunction, there will still be enough left to complete the task at hand.
<h2>People</h2>

<!WA2><a href="http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/brooks/brooks.html">
<!WA3><img align=left src="http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/lil-people/lil-brooks.gif">
Professor Rodney Brooks</a>
<tt>(brooks@ai.mit.edu)</tt><br>
Principal Investigator<br clear=all><p>

<!WA4><a href="http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/jdmac/jdmac.html">
<!WA5><img align=left src="http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/lil-people/lil-jdmac.gif">
James McLurkin</a> <tt>(jdmac@ai.mit.edu)</tt><br>Microrobots<br clear=all><p>

<h2>Sponsors</h2>
This work is sponsored by NASA JPL
<h2>Related Research at the MIT AI Lab</h2>

<strong><!WA6><a href="http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/mars-rovers/pebbles.html">
<!WA7><IMG align=left SRC="http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/mars-rovers/peb-small.jpg"> Pebbles</a>
</strong><br>    
A vision-based mobile robot that uses a single camera for obstacle
avoidance in rough, unstructured environments. Some of the potential 
applications for this research include <!WA8><a href="http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/mars-rovers/">Mars
exploration</a> and <!WA9><a href="http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/eod-robots/"> explosive ordnance 
disposal</a>.<br clear=all><p>

<strong><!WA10><a href="http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/ants">
<!WA11><IMG align=left SRC="http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/ants/fingrant-25.jpg"> The Ants</a>
</strong><br>
<!WA12><a href="http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/microrobots/">Microrobots</a> designed to explore ideas 
about robotic communities.  One of the potential applications for this 
research is <!WA13><a href="http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/eod-robots/"> explosive ordnance 
disposal</a>.<br clear=all><p>


<h2>Related Research Elsewhere</h2>
<menu>
<li> <!WA14><a href="http://isx.com/~isr/">IS Robotics, Inc.</a>
</menu>





